The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 12

Friday, June 2, 1989 The Journal-News, Rockland County, N.Y. 12A OUR VIEW Cleanup in sight Don't delay work on Kay-Fries property T'S been about 18 months since the Kay-Fries chemical plant in Stony Point shut its hazardous wastes. Just as important as the cleanup is the investigation by Stony Point of reports that chemical wastes from Kay-Fries were dumped at a site in the town but off the company's property. doors, but it's been years since worries began to surface over hazardous materials Huls says it is not aware of any off-site dumping and that Kay-Fries complied with the environmental laws in place during its existence. discarded at the plant.

Now, at long last, a cleanup is expected to begin next year. There must be no more delay, and the work must begin as promised. Reports of other toxic dumps must be checked out A New Breeze Blowing YOUR VIEW WEST NYACKFlooding just nature's way I have lived in Rockland County, suggestions have been made and tried, and all have failed due to the overriding and obvious natural geography. No Johnny-come-lately can throw money at a swamp and make it disappear. Besides, the $2 million is no gift to the customers-to-be.

head or food to put in his stomach should want to change his ways? I can't. Can't the taxpayers think of a better way to spend that $28,000 annually to help these people put their lives together and put an end to the increasing crime rate in Rockland? While the reports may well prove to be just rumors, the town has to check them out. A search is on for former Kay-Fries workers who might have seen off -site dumping, and if there are any, we urge them to come forward. In this age of environmental awareness, there are more than enough horror stories about the many years of unauthorized or simply mindless dumping of hazardous wastes, from oil dumped in the ground at some service stations to chemical pollution by large companies. For too many decades, the dangers to our health and environment from this pollution were not known, or not widely discussed, and were not even considered by many businesses, perhaps because any precautions would cut into profits.

Let's hope a new attitude is emerging. Certainly, Superfund action and other cleanups are part of the road back, and in Stony Point that road must be clear, indeed. State Department of Environmental Conservation tests around the plant show contamination on a 400-foot by 600-foot section of the former factory only, and monitoring wells will be placed on site to determine what chemicals are present and how to solve the problem. Last year, New York added Kay-Fries to its "Superf und" list of hazardous dump sites. It is classified as posing "a significant threat to health or environment" because the chemicals found in ground water are all suspected of causing cancer in humans.

While Kay-Fries no longer owns the property, it will clean up whatever chemicals are found. Huls America, the firm which has absorbed Kay-Fries, is to submit an outline of the problems to the DEC by Nov. 24, and then if the state accepts the plans, Huls will present a cleanup schedule. That can come none too soon, considering peoples' worries over what was dumped at the plant during the days when no one seemed to care about Any ideas? ANNIE PALKO ELL Hillcrest To the Editor: Regarding the flooding of Route 59 west of Route 303 in West Nyack, there are three remedies and none are practical: One would be to build an elevated roadway over the flooding part so that the water would be under the ramp, that is, if the bed could stand the weight. We have been led to believe that there is quicksand under the road, and it does act as if that were so.

I cannot recall how many roads have been laid down in the form of new pavement, all of which failed to raise the road above flood levels. Years ago, holes were drilled and cement poured in to form pillars. Prior to that, massive chunks from the traprock mine were placed on the bed and paving covered over them. A second suggestion would be to pump the water elsewhere, but where? Moving the problem to another location is no solution. The third and best solution would be to jack up the north end of Rockland County to create a pitch that is presently lacking.

But then Lake Tappan would flood, as well as lower Rockland and northern New Jersey. In sum, we cannot change the two natural causes of the flooding the low geography of the flooding area and the lack of pitch between Lake DeForest and Lake Tappan. A similar problem exists in New City from New Hempstead Road north to the culvert on Old Route 304 there is not enough pitch to the land and Crum Creek disposes of the water only according to the geography. The $2 million offered by the Pyramid Mall wouldn't buy a noticeable contribution to the total needed for any of the Route 59 "solutions." For the 50 years that Surely the money would be recovered by spreading it over the store rentals, which would then be passed on in the sale price of goods offered therein. ZIPPORAH FLEISHER New City JAILTaxpayers are 'enablers' To the Editor: Are you aware that you are an "en-abler?" All Rockland taxpayers are.

The term refers to a person or persons who allow people with bad habits to continue their bad habits. By now, everyone is aware that Rockland has a new jail. Did you know that it costs approximately $28,000 annually to keep one inmate there? Why? Because they are entitled to clothing, clean laundry, three well-balanced meals daily, all of their medical, dental and eye-care needs fulfilled, as well as abortions, methadone and surgery. Not to mention a workout room, ping-pong tables, basketball court, color TV, Home Box Office, stamps, public defender assistance and phone calls. They are entitled to visitation by their families and friends, and if they want to marry, the county will provide that service, too.

Can you think of a reason why a drug dealer, rapist, murderer, armed robber or anyone who barely has a roof over his Spotlight will remain The writer is a registered nurse at the Rockland County Jail. PREGNANCYCenter provides services To the Editor: The Rockland Pregnancy Counseling Center provides services to women in crisis pregnancies by offering an alternative to abortion. The RPCC is committed to the care of both the mother and her baby by giving emotional support and practical assistance to all women in need, regardless of race, creed, age or marital status. These services are available free of charge. RPCC, located at 15 Virginia West Nyack, has been serving women since 1987.

Karen Gallanda, executive director, and other members of RPCC, maintain a pregnancy counseling hot-line service. If you or someone you know would like to have further information, please call 353-1875. WILLIAM T. PIERCE Bardonia The writer is a member of the RPCC Board of Directors. HE resignation Standards of Official Conduct, and he will undoubtedly not be the last of his brethren to go.

Yes, there are dangers in such a system the "self-appointed vigilantes carrying out personal vendettas against members of the other party," as Wright put it, but the fact remains that someone who violates standards is his own worst enemy. More and more, the people are requiring their leaders to toe the line, with deal-making and special interests shunned. The spotlight is turned on. of House Speaker Jim Wright will be seen as justice by some and the result of a witchhunt by others, but one thing remains indisputable: the growing spotlight on ethics in government will not soon dim. Wright's departure was a natural course of action resulting from Congress' 197 decision to judge itself through creation of the Committee of 'Hunger for freedom has a universal cry' QUOTABLE 'Can't the taxpayers think of a better way to spend $28,000 annually (for jail inmates) to help these people Letter writer Annie Palko Ell BOB MAYNARD 200 N.

Route 303, West Nyack, N.Y. 358-2200 Vol. 100, No. 28 Paul Janensch Vic President, Editor, General Manogor 578 3400, 578 230) attempted, communism simply has not worked. Before we stick our national chests out too far, we need to take a hard look at the fact that for a significant portion of our own society, our system doesn't work all that well either.

Back in the '50s and '60s, our own raging ideological debate concerned the need to purge the pernicious effects of racism from our society and its institutions. The argument was sometimes whether our best defense against totalitarianism was not equality. Over time, we have seen great progress toward equality for some and a growing underclass that seems to be swallowing up thousands of children in a spiral of pathology and death from drugs and guns. There are those who wish to solve that problem with more prisons, tougher laws, the death penalty -anything but honest thought. To look that issue in the eye is to recognize that democracy's great work remains unfinished.

We still have plenty of masses of our own yearning to breathe free of poverty and ignorance. I heard one of the Chinese students quoting Martin Luther King the other evening. The student's words reminded us that the hunger for freedom has a universal cry. We have heard it in Birmingham, and now we hear it in Beijing. Jack Pease Aliistant Managing Editor 5782402 Arthur H.

Gunther Editorial Page Editor 578-2403 I requently, we began our school days in the '50s with a lesson on the menace of communism. The truth of Stalin's ruthless reign was first emerging in the West then, and Mao's red star over China was on the rise. The point of our daily lecture was that the virus of totalitarianism could spread across the globe. No one was presumed impervious to its blandishments. There were those of us at home then who believed racism was a far more direct threat to our well-being than communism, but the mood of the '50s, McCarthyism and all, was made somber by maps in our classrooms showing a bright red stain fairly devouring the globe.

Those images were revived in my mind by an almost comical sight in Beijing in the recent demonstrations. The only reason it is not funny is that it was a comedic moment that bespoke a tragedy. The more I thought about it, the more its classic contours told volumes about our curious times and the fate of world communism. There in the television footage was the titular leader of world communism, Mikhail Gorbachev, visiting the world's largest communist country, China, and they had to duck the masses to do their business. Their young, the presumed inheritors of brave Marxist doctrine and Mao's Long March, had taken over the streets to demand democracy.

Gorbachev and his embarrassed hosts were left no choice but to navigate the back roads of Beijing. Out on the broad byways, where the flags of China and the Soviet Uniou snapped in a stiff breeze of change, the Evening Journal established 1889. Doily News 1915, consolidated 1932. Published doily and Sunday at Tht Journal-Newt Building, 200 N. Rout 303, West Nyack, N.Y., by Westchester RocMand Newspapers, One Gannett Driv.

Whit Plains, N.Y., division of Gannttt Satellite Information Network, Inc. A Gannett Newspaper Joseph M. Ungaro President and Publisher 694 5203 students, the intellectuals, the workers, the journalists and common folk from every walk of life demanded reform. The visitor undoubtedly felt right at home. There have been similar uprisings all over the Soviet Union.

There are tentative steps toward the secret ballot, and the barriers between Eastern Europe and the West are crumbling as we speak. Some worldwide menace this doctrine turned out to be. Washington and Moscow seem to agree that the Cold War is over. And China's leaders declared themselves no longer interested in the East-West power struggle that has devoured the energies of the superpowers and their allies for the last four decades. Now we no longer need frighten schoolchildren about the red menace.

We need only let them watch the evening news to know we are witnessing a cataclysmic moment. This ideological debate, which in one way or another affected the course of history for virtually all this century, has come down to this: As a system for improving the lives of the masses in China, the Soviet Union and virtually everywhere it has been Lawrence K. Beaupre Vice President, Executive Editor 694-5002 Charles Schmitt Vice President, finance 694-5171 Patricia D. Nagle Vic President, Personnel 694-5168 Saul Doctor Vke President, Production 694-5161 Peter M. Anderson Vke President, Advertising 694-5157 Robert T.

O'Sullivan Vke President, Circulation 694-5165 Elizabeth Bracken Vke President, Promotion Community Relations 694-5354 I have no doubt if Dr. King were here to witness this remarkable moment, he would remind us to look in Watts and Detroit and East Harlem to know it is much too soon to preen over the end of ideology. We still have too much to do. Bob Maynard is a Universal Press columnist..